They promote it as a feature, yet offer an upgraded anti-glare screen? Your anti-Apple bias is showing...

In stark contrast to the vast amount of thought you've put in? Not quite...

That's correct and precisely my point, they are useless because there's no solid reason for the companies to pay attention to it other than if the consumer pays attention to it--and we both know how fickle consumers are. You even made an example of how this DOESN'T work--CR's tests were false, Suzuki had evidence of this, yet consumers didn't listen.

All the BBB has are empty threats. Establishing an independent agency of the government will back it up with the necessary authority so that it wouldn't be ignored. Relying on your CR scenario to curb the industry would be worthless: there's no telling what the consumer will and won't ignore regarding the empty threats that come out of baseless committees. To ensure the industry would listen, one needs sufficient negative reinforcement when they don't listen.

Apparently you're unaware of how these agencies of the government work. I can't blame you--nothing you've said so far lacks ignorance. The President of the United States (a person whom was directly elected by the people) sends a list of candidates for the board to be approved by the Senate (100 people voted into their position by--you guessed it--the general population). This ensures that the people elected to the board of whatever agency are elected by a hodgepodge of people with differing political agendas WHO EACH IN TURN WAS DIRECTLY ELECTED TO THEIR POSITION BY THE GENERAL POPULATION. Now, the possibility of the board being corrupt is certainly there, the potential is zero. You would have to have voted a president and all 100 members of the senate into office having the exact same political position which has never and will never happen.

And before you put forth your best effort to blow holes in this statement, the above has been proven to work quite well. There have been sufficiently few instances of politically corrupt independent agencies to believe that system works--for what it's worth anyway. When was the last time you've heard the FCC using it's power for political gain? Never, and the commission's goals were in stark contrast to the right-dominated government (80% of the last decade).

Seriously? Grow up, and take a break from the Internet please. Nobody likes talking to an asshole.

I would like to point out that if there were a way of curbing the industry without government intervention, I'm all for that. I just don't see that happening whatsoever since the government has set up a system to protect the companies which inadvertently put them in control of the industry instead of the consumer. Since you obviously believe you're superior to me, please tell me your suggestion. After all, you must have one since you're trying so hard to blow holes in mine. And for future reference, this is how conversations "in the real world" usually go. If you disagree, you make recommendations instead of attempting to sound superior but giving no real contribution to the conversation.

This is not something I really had interest in answering, since everything said is completely hypothetical, but to answer you; it's not unfathomable to create a "best business practices" entity akin to the FCC (but nothing like the useless BBB). An independent agency of the Government, separated from financial/political interests, and authoritative enough to guide the industry to ethical paths. Don't read into this too much--I would never claim the FCC as an imperfect entity, only more good than bad.

Honestly, all I'm trying to say is the service providers should be forced to write a clause in their contracts that explicitly say at what speed they fail to live up to their end of the deal. This shouldn't HAVE to be forced upon them, but it seems they lack the ethics to do so on their own accord. And the consumer lacks the ability to submit an amended contract.

Your first point is false (as evidenced by a multitude of businessmen and government officials claiming ignorance to paperwork that they signed--and getting away with it), but I fully agree with your second point.

Are you purposely trolling, or just stuck in a rage? Not only did I say expecting 100% of advertised speeds unrealistic, but I also said getting 70% of said speeds is acceptable, albeit barely. Furthermore, I never once claimed there WAS a law stating a consumer has the right to take ISPs to court if they don't hit their "up to" speed. All I was saying is that there has to be some threshold (read: less than 100%) where consumers could ARGUE false advertisement. One is expecting intervention from the government, the other is claiming only an arguable case for, as an example, a breach of contract. There's a subtle but distinct difference.

I think maybe you should cool down a bit instead of arguing with people who literally agreed with your point.

I agree that expecting 100% of advertised speeds--since the advertisement claims "up to"--is entirely unrealistic. However, there certainly has to be a threshold where a user could claim false advertisement. IMHO, getting 70% of the speed is barely acceptable, 50% is downright atrocious.

Ignore my ignorance. My apologies, Lunix, for jumping the gun on my reply!

This would be true, except that later that day (or perhaps the next day) a redaction was submitted, saying he was misunderstood. What he really said was "quite smooth".

What? No, What I'm saying is exactly what was said: They were built to a 40 year old standard, implying standards have changed. I went on to say all nuclear power plants continuously update their facilities, improving their structure and build code, but Japanese government decided not to, and decided not to heed the warnings of the agencies who regulate these standards.

What's so hard to understand about that?

Deep breath...

The code wasn't ignored, it was overturned. The regulators were telling the Japanese government that it was unsafe for the last 5 years. They were also talking about the falsified safety records in the plant. Nobody lied, this was public information. It was just completely disregarded by the Japanese government.

The inspectors are not financially influenced by the industry at all. IAEA, which is the security organization that was warning Japan of the issues regarding Fukushima Daiichi, reports directly to the UN. Their focus is peaceful uses of nuclear technology as well as regulate nuclear safety and security. This industry also has at least two more regulatory councils; WANO, (which was established after Chernobyl by IAEA, the UN, and independent governments/nuclear plants, whose focus is nuclear safety and efficiency) as well as WINS (established in 2008 to influence the safe handling of nuclear material and facilities). I would absolutely hope they used to work in the industry, I can't imagine anybody more qualified to inspect a nuclear power plant than someone from the field. The inspectors don't ignore a single hair, let alone a hairline crack. I've been through inspections before, they are properly thorough. Besides, if one of them lies, they'll be caught red-handed by either of the other two and wouldn't be trusted again.

Neither the regulators nor the industry lie. There's no incentive for the regulators to brush over something, they don't get bonuses for passing more plants, they themselves are regulated by the UN. The last thing they want is to break international law. The liars are the governments. They're the ones that have to sink money into plants that need repairs/reconditioning. Japan happens to be a very proud country and ignored the warnings given. This is what has to stop.

The coal industry is most certainly lying to you. They spend MILLIONS in advertising and attempts at covering up the death numbers. But more importantly, you make a very dangerous, and erroneous, assumption. If you assume people know of the dangers (which is not true, as evidenced by this article stating that ten years ago, one out of five people believed the sun revolves around Earth) you're putting more faith in mankind then they deserve. People live ignorantly by choice.

This is true--correct and unbiased information was hard to come by (and still is to some degree) largely due to Japan's proud government. They do what they can to not appear weak, it's socially ingrained in them. But to call us, or anybody else, a liar is pointing fingers in the wrong area. Most of the problems were covered up until they boiled over, but not by us or the media or by the regulators. Don't call 'guilty' unless you're completely positive of the guilt.

You do realize the Fukushima Daiichi plant is 40 years old, right? It was built to regulatory code in the very late 60's/early 70's. There are a lot of plants built during that time, sure, but every plant that I know of keeps up with the current safety standards and are under constant, continuous monitoring to make sure everything is safe. I fully agree that more regulation is needed in some places, but in the US and Canada at least (and I imagine the UK as well), that regulation is already in place. Why do people fear nuclear power--a form of energy that is proven to be very safe, reliable and environmentally clean (though not renewable)--but they don't say the same about coal, an industry that has an appalling number of deaths?

I don't feel nuclear energy generation is the answer long-term, as we will run out of radioactive material and places to safely store them, but compared to what the world uses currently, it is the solution we need right now and can, at a minimum, sustain us for hundreds of years until we master more renewable sources.

That pretty much nails it right there. Well said.

Not to mention Canada's population is only about 10% of US.

Heh, DTW does the opposite: they only use the scanners and only during busy hours will they open up the metal detectors to relieve foot traffic. Over the last 6 months, flying in and out of Detroit every week, I've only missed the scanners twice, perhaps three times.

I disagree. In fact, it's incredibly taxing on our economy to keep up the prohibition. Unless the government has a hand in selling marijuana (I doubt that marijuana would be their illegal narcotic of choice) then all they're doing is shoveling millions of dollars into the prisons to pay for the prisoners in jail for selling/possessing it.

However, if they legalize and tax it, marijuana would bring in millions of dollars.

Heh, I see what you did there.